Lóng de Huǒyàn
by Nightshade6265
Summary: After defeating the Red Death Hiccup, unable to stand Berk and its mistreatment of dragons sets out with Toothless to find proof that Dragons and Humans can coexist peacefully. On his trip he runs into a group of traders and join them as they return to their homeland. New dragons and foreign lands await him, along with a chance to find out who he is, and who he wants to become.
1. Chapter 1

**Nightshade6265 here to bring you a new fic! I am writing this with my friend You are right...NOT. This is my first collab fic and my first venture into this particular fandom so I hope you enjoy!**

 **Oh, and as per usual I OWN NOTHING!**

Hiccup really wished things had panned out as he had hoped.

While his dad and the other teens seemed willing to give Hiccup's ideas of peace a chance, almost no one else in Berk was willing to believe that the Dragons could be forgiven for the years of conflict even after it was uncovered that the dragons were slaves to the Red Death. Those that did seem willing to accept having dragons among them seemed to think of them as potential weapons for the village or opportunities to increase their political might in the archipelago. As much as Hiccup wanted to say he didn't understand, he got exactly why.

Dragons were immensely powerful and any village that could control them would be unmatched by any other.

This didn't do much to restore Hiccup's faith in the people in his village. All he saw around himself, all he had ever seen around himself was cruelty, plain and simple.

The dragons were being treated the same way he was treated in the past by the very same people.

Knowing this, it didn't surprise him when Mildew and many other villagers who distrusted dragons demanded that the dragons leave and that they resume their old way of life. Unfortunately, these demands were presented not only to his father, but to him, as he was supposedly the "Dragon Master". Even more unnerving, was that these demands came with threats of violence against both he and Toothless.

The last straw though, was when he saw a viking bring a gronkle who had been deemed disobedient and tortured it with eels, claiming that it was the dragon's master. The dragon attempted to defend itself and was killed by a group of men who had accompanied the self-proclaimed "master" of the dragon.

It was in that instant that Hiccup decided that he couldn't stay on Berk, that he could no longer bear to see the cruelty of vikings whether directed at him or others.

The following night he wrote letters to his father and Gobber, explaining that he simply couldn't stay anymore and that he would return, hopefully when things had improved. He considered writing a letter to Astrid as well, but decided instead to talk to her in person, telling her to meet him in the cove at dawn.

Having already packed everything they needed into what few bags they had, Hiccup and Toothless were already at the cove.

"Feels like we've come full circle, eh bud?" Hiccup joked as he finished securing the last of the bags to Toothless' saddle. Eventually they heard footsteps, and turned to find Astrid making her way into the cove. Toothless immediately put on his signature smile, gave off a happy warble and bounded over to Astrid, eager to get some attention from his second favorite person.

She just smiled and began scratching Toothless' neck, much to the dragon's delight, reducing him to a puddle of bliss at her fingertips.

"So Hiccup," She began, "What's this whole meeting about?"

Hiccup froze for a moment as a million thoughts ran through his mind.

'Where will I go? What will I do?' He thought, 'I mean it's not like I have so much experience living outside of Berk.'

Which was true, Hiccup had been raised to live on the island's relative safety (dragon attacks notwithstanding) he really didn't know exactly what to do or where he should go if he left at all.

All the same, he knew he just couldn't stay here.

He took a deep breath, mustering up some courage, "I'm leaving."

She paused in scratching Toothless, who warbled in displeasure, blinking, "What do you mean? For how long?"

Hiccup gestured in the general direction of the village, "Astrid, the whole village, it's... I can't do this any longer! The queen, the Red Death is dead and the dragons are free, but haven't you seen how the dragons are treated by most of the villagers? It's probably just as bad and if not worse than before, and that's because too many people don't see that the dragons were forced to do this against their will! I am leaving, hopefully the dragons take the hint and follow suit. I can't force the vikings to change, but by Thor's hammer, it doesn't mean I will sit by and watch this! I am going to leave for, I may return, but it won't be for a long time, at least until I can find proof that Dragons can live alongside people without either side doing harm to the other."

Astrid glared at him, "So what do you expect us to do? You can't just leave Hiccup! It'll only get worse if you go!"

Hiccup scratched the back of his head, "I want to show the dragons they don't need to live here, I'll be setting them free of this place."

He nodded inwardly. He wouldn't be responsible for this, the dragons only came to Berk because he defeated their queen. If he left, they might follow.

Astrid seemed to want to object, but nodded, "Ok... Can I come with you?"

Hiccup blinked, staring owlishly at her, "Do you really want to?"

She pursed her lips, staring at the ground, "Yeah, all of the teens, Fishlegs, Snoutlout, Ruff and Tuff. They've all seen it and they don't like it any more than you do. We didn't know what to do; in fact we were planning to ask you anyway. Besides, we're dragon riders too."

Hiccup couldn't help but sigh as he thought over the possibility of the others joining him.

He had guessed that Astrid would want to accompany him on his trip, but he hadn't counted on the fact that the other teens might want to as well.

The more he thought about it though the more he wanted to travel alone.

"I...I don't want anyone to come with me. I'm leaving as much for myself as I am to learn about dragons and possibilities for peace." He said, choosing his words carefully.

"What do you mean you're leaving for yourself?" Astrid all but screamed before becoming sullen, "Am I not enough?"

Hiccup sighed, trying to think of how he could explain why he felt the need to leave.

"Astrid, my desire to leave has nothing to do with you. You know exactly who you are and what you've had to be. You've always known. It's been different for me though. I've spent my whole life being hated and picked on by the whole village for being different, and now half of the village hates me for changing their way of living while the other half sees me as some great warrior. That's not who I am, Astrid. I...I don't know who I am, but I know that I need to find out, and I can't do that while I'm here. I can't do it while surrounded by people who treat me like something I'm not." Hiccup stated, his voice burning with conviction.

Astrid just stared at Hiccup, hurt evident in her eyes, but she understood what he meant. The villagers of Berk had always put him down, and now they were putting him on a pedestal. It was long past time that he grow into his own person, and he had begun doing so by befriending Toothless and coming to understand Dragons. He had taken his first step by making his own choice, a choice that defied hundreds of years of viking history. It was time that he really found out who he was, and if he had to leave behind his home then so be it.

"Alright," Astrid said, her eyes downcast "Is there anything you want me to do while you're away?"

"If the dragons don't leave, I want you to help the villagers get used to them. Help improve things for both sides so that when I return it'll be to a better Berk," Hiccup said, giving Astrid a small, hopeful smile, "Who knows? Maybe you'll have more success than I did."

Astrid took a deep breath and nodded, "Okay. Promise me you'll come back though."

Hiccup gave her a smile, "I promise, I'll be back one day. I need to do this alone though. I'll see you again Astrid, I promise."

Astrid smiled back, but one thought stood out in her mind, 'Who will you be when you come back though?'

He kissed her forehead and mounted Toothless, "You ready bud?"

Toothless trilled a acquiescing noise, nudging his nose one last time into Astrid's chest before crouching and readying himself.

"Let's fly!" Hiccup yelled.

Toothless flapped his wings and the two shot into the air.

'This is it. I need to find myself.' Hiccup thought, 'It's time.'

 **There's the first chapter folks. We hope you enjoyed it and we look forward to your feedback. The more reviews we get the more motivated we are!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Finally getting around to updating my fics. This one in particular has had me bogged down due to how short the chapters seem but I promise they will get bigger once we get further into Hiccup's travels. As stated in the previous chapter I am co-writing this with "Mr. Nobody or YARN", formerly known as "You Are Right… NOT!" So he gets half the credit for this. This is my first HTTYD fic as well as his but he's written some RWBY fics so check his stuff out if you're interested.**

 **Disclamer- We own absolutely nothing. Hell, even the brains we're using are on loan.**

It had been about a week since Hiccup and Toothless had left Berk. They had spent their time well, having found a small, uninhabited island outside of the archipelago. There they had settled within a cave and made a temporary base of operations. The cave wasn't exactly homey; the inside was pretty bare, housing only the supplies that they had taken on their trip. It wasn't meant to really be a home for them so much as a place from which they could set out to find different villages so as to better understand the local people and their relation to dragons. The island was near three other inhabited islands that each had a village. Fortunately for Hiccup and Toothless though the island they found for themselves remained devoid of human settlements, as the terrain was too rocky and harsh to sustain crops. Hiccup had already visited one of the three neighboring islands and intended to set out to one of the two neighboring islands in order to find some traders so that he could stock up on any supplies that he might need. As for goods to trade, Hiccup brought some axes that he had forged back in Berk. He knew that he was a good blacksmith among Vikings, and was also curious as to how his products compared to foreign ones. Unfortunately, during his survey of the surrounding villages he found that they were less prone to creating conflict than the Vikings that resided in the archipelago and thus didn't have forges for Hiccup to work in. Both the villages' weapons were imported by traders, and as Hiccup didn't have a means to create more goods to sell, he needed to figure out something else that he could do to get tradable goods.

"Well bud, seems like my luck has hit us once again. Here we are, without work, in a cave, and not even a forge to work with." Hiccup sighed as he scratched Toothless' head.

Toothless trilled an unhappy acknowledgment.

"I thought we'd have been able to use a forge in the area, but there isn't one. We could try making one, but we would somehow need to make a whole bunch of things, and well… I don't think I have enough strength in these," Hiccup grumbled, gesturing at his arms, "to get the job done."

Toothless warbled and postured as if to say, "I have all the strength we need right here!"

"Sorry bud," Hiccup comforted apologetically as he patted Toothless' head, "but our lack of supplies is the bigger problem keeping us from making our own forge, besides while you're certainly strong, dragons aren't exactly good with finesse, no offense."

Toothless trilled an unhappy agreement before nudging Hiccup with his head in an attempt to cheer him up.

Hiccup acknowledged Toothless' efforts with a pat to the head but quickly turned back to his thoughts.

He sighed at the situation in general. In all honesty, blacksmithing and dragon-riding were really the only things he knew how to do. Without a proper forge though, he had limited his usable skills to one and frankly these islands weren't exactly dragon friendly. Granted, they didn't attack on sight, choosing the whole 'live and let live' approach. It wasn't foolish idealism though, as they knew full well how a dragon raid would go and were still reluctant to let the dragons too close due to that fear.

Hiccup couldn't help but sigh.

"I really wasn't prepared for this at all," He muttered to himself.

For a moment he wondered if his quest of self-discovery was pointless, if the more he looked the more he would find himself to be Hiccup the screw-up.

'No,' Hiccup thought, as he shook his head, 'No, I became a dragon rider in spite of two hundred years of Viking history, and I saved my entire village because I was different, not in spite of it. I have to be more than just a screw-up.'

"Bud, we'll figure things out upon doing a more thorough survey of the surrounding villages. There's no sense in panicking until we know we're out of options," He said as he turned back to Toothless.

Toothless flashed his signature gummy smile and warbled in agreement.

Despite what some vikings on Berk thought, Toothless wasn't merely Hiccups pet. He was Intelligent, more so than most dragons, and this intelligence allowed for a relationship of equals between the pair. Perhaps more interesting was how well they understood each other. Most vikings assumed that Hiccup guessed the meaning behind Toothless' warbling and cooing, but that was incorrect. If one asked Hiccup he would say that it began the moment Toothless had allowed him to place his hand on his snout. If Toothless could talk he would've likely said that their bond truly began when Hiccup and he first flew as one. Regardless the trust between these two lonely souls forged a bond that transcended words, a bond of instinct. Because of this Toothless knew just what Hiccup was thinking whenever he looked into his eyes.

His human had a look of determination in his eyes. This wasn't the same boy who had confronted him in the forest after a lucky bola shot. No, these were the eyes of the hero who had the courage to defy his entire village and their way of life to save his best friend, the eyes that had gazed upon the Dragon Queen and selfishly decided to challenge her for the freedom of every dragon under her reign.

They held no doubt or reprehension now; they spoke of only tenacity and courage.

Some would find such a look of determination out of place of a hiccup, but Toothless knew better. When Hiccup got this look there was little to nothing that could stop him from reaching his goals, which was something that made Toothless proud. He knew that Hiccup was fairly small and weak as far as humans were concerned, but he stood out because of his intelligence, and when combined with his own draconic speed and power there was little they couldn't accomplish.

If they could kill a giant dragon many times the size of Berk's largest sailing ships, they could definitely find a way to survive outside of berk.

Just then Toothless' ears perked up and he turned his head towards the ocean.

"What is it bud? Do you hear something?" Hiccup asked, trusting Toothless' superior senses as he'd learned to do in the few situations when danger had already confronted them.

Toothless grumbled and began pulling Hiccup back inside the cave.

Hiccup complied but turned to get one last look at the ocean.

There in the distance he saw a ship, but it wasn't anything like the trading ships he'd seen docked at the nearby islands. No this one was far large and it had a black sail with a skull emblazoned on it.

"Pirates!" He breathed.

 **I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know that there are plenty of stories that have Toothless flat out be able to talk, even if it is exclusively to Hiccup, and I don't want to do that without at least giving a good reason, so for the time being I hope we're infusing our lovable Night Fury with enough personality. Tell us what you think in a review.**


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